The Simple Joy of Moving Your Hand

Seth is gaining so much more control over his own body. You can see it in the way he moves his hands, how he steps more confidently and the way he can sit on the floor and twist his torso round to look around him. These are all recently acquired skills through the smallest of little 'steps' so subtle that we barely noticed them but amount to Seth actually moving himself and interacting with things around him. I can actually simply sit and watch him just moving his hands in front of him; moving his fingers, feeling the velcro on his straps or waving his hand through the air. We have started to play 'knock the bricks over'. A friend bought Seth, a couple of birthday's ago, magnetic, stackable shapes. And finally we are playing with them. I stack the bricks 3 high and Seth knocks them over. Magical: it's clumsy movements but they are deliberate and it makes him giggle. And my heart stop.

It also means that life has gotten just a little easier. When we travelled to Leeds last weekend we stopped on the way for some lunch. We were able to sit Seth on the chair and feed him a sandwich instead of his wheelchair.

We can also have carpet picnics and feed sandwiches to Seth sitting on the floor, which means we don't always need to lug supportive seating with us.

This also mean though that with Seth's new mobility we lowered his bed not a day too soon. He now sits up in bed and bum shuffles his way to the other end.

There is a slightly high side along the bottom, as well as down one side so he just pushes his feet against it but I'm certainly relieved that there isn't such a long drop any more.